Book Review: "Thorn" by Intisar Khanani

 

Thorn (Dauntless Path, #1)Thorn by Intisar Khanani
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thorn is a young adult novel of a Grimm’s fairy tale, The Goose Girl, reimagined. It follows a princess who is not happy with her life as she is never good enough for her mother and the target of her brother’s abuse. She dreams of a life where she can be free from the responsibilities of her royal miserable life. Instead of freedom, however, she is given away in an arranged marriage to a prince she has never met. On her journey to meet him in his kingdom with another girl that has a grudge against her, magic changes the princess’ course. She attains her desired freedom, but at what cost? As her life is turned upside down she learns about a plot against her to be wed prince. Can she save him while keeping her newfound freedom? Or will she have to choose between being responsible for his demise due to her silence or voluntarily walking back into the life she felt trapped in.

Thorn has many twists and turns while following Princess Alyrra’s journey into a new life and two potential futures. Although there were some great concepts and themes introduced by the author, quantity outweighed the quality as an outcome. There were multiple elements that did not feel fully followed through and other elements got tangled with each other creating some confusion on how they even where related. I felt the author had some really great ideas but I wish she explored them by introducing them as a series with each book having Alyrra take on a different plot line or even saving each to be an individual story with new characters instead of trying to fit all of them into a single book. Even though there were many elements introduced seeming to change the character’s course, to the point of confusion at times, the story’s ending was not surprising nor satisfying for what you had to follow as a reader. Overall, there were some great elements I enjoyed and I felt Khanani has some great stories to tell. However, I felt more frustrated trying to follow along with Thorn than enjoying reading it.

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